Jump to content
Innovative Marine Aquariums

Xenia


quiksilver5768

Recommended Posts

quiksilver5768

I recently got some frags from a fellow reefer aroeund my area. I got some pom pom xenia and some silver tip. Once I put the silver tip in, it fully extended and started pulsing. The pom pom took about 30 min to be fully extended. I was wondering if there is anything in particular that you should feed them...or are they just filter feeders? I use micro-vert for my polyps and feather dusters and mushrooms. Does xenia utilize this food also?

Link to comment

They're filter feeders.   I've had mine for about a month now and I haven't fed it yet.  It's growing like crazy, too.

Link to comment

Make sure you have avereage to high lighting, they will grow better and begin to pulse if the lighting is right. (along with other factors)

Link to comment
quiksilver5768

My light is pretty high. Im running 2x55 watts on my 10. And they started pulsing right away. Thanks for the responses :)

Link to comment
Nishant3789

o and if they stop pulsing, its cuz ure pH is low, they are pretty sensitive to pH swings. and i too have heard they are filterfeeders, but they mostly get their food from their zooanthelle. hth,

nishant

Link to comment

Actually, they're not filter feeders either. Filter feeders strain food particles out of the water using polyps or some other type of feathery apparatus. With Xenia, the polyps are thought to be used for gas exchange. They get nutrients from their zooxanthellae and by direct absorption from the water column.

 

Also, I agree that they are very sensitive to pH swings. I dose limewater in a 20 gallon tank and the couple times my pH has spiked (~8.6), the Xenia has closed up and died back some. Meanwhile, my supposedly more delicate Acropora colonies don't seem to mind at all.

 

-Chris

Link to comment
My Alife 7

I don't feed my xenias anything but I have them moderately close to the lights. Mine pulse like crazy and they seem to be much bigger since I've bought them about a week and half ago...

Link to comment

xenia like all corals and cnidarians will eat plankton foods in the water (filter feeding). like most corals, they will obtain most of there energy from the symbiotic zooxanthelly.

Link to comment
quiksilver5768

So the definite reason why they stop pulsing is because of a ph swing? Becuase mine just stopped pu;lsing today and they were pulsing fine yesterdya. I tested my ph yesterday and it was 8.2. Today the ph is 8.3...

Link to comment

ive also have head but not experianced this that if the water current is high across the xenia, it has no reason to pulse and it will stop.

Link to comment

NO. I think Nishant remembers some people posting about Xenia being a good PH meter, since they will stop pulsing at lower PH. This does not mean that they stop pulsing BECAUSE of PH. Sharp current, temp fluctuation, poor lighting, lack of trace elements and harrassment are merely some of the many reasons why xenia might stop pulsing.

Link to comment
quiksilver5768

Well that explains it then because had a temp flucuation last night. My temp went from 81 to 76 because my heater broke :(. I was scared that my corals and fish would be stressed and die but everything turned out fine. I got a new heater so the temp is back up to 81 where it usually is and i just got home and the xenia is pulsing once again.

 

Oh by the way...all of your have to see STAR WARS EPISODE II. Its the greates movie. If any of you have seen it...the greates part is when yoda starts fighting that guy and flyin around. hahahah. Later

Link to comment
Nishant3789

awww wuick u ruiuned it for me! o well, anyways

i didnt mean to say tehy were like a pH meter, i meant that if they happen to close up for extended periods of time, check your pH. the 8.2 to 8.3 change is not enopugh to make the xenia stop puilsing IMO. there are several other factos as pulp mentioned. mine slose up everytime i accidently touch em when cleaning the tank and also, if a hermit touches em or if they pick something up in the water like floating hair algea, they dont like it.

   Jefe, it has not been proven yet exactly why the xenia pulse, not saying that u are wrong, but just lettting u know that they still arent sure why they pulse.

well hth,

nishant

Link to comment

Yeah, that's why I said that the polyps are "thought" to be used for gas exchange. My main point was that the commonly perpetuated explanation for their pulsing (filter feeding) is most likely incorrect. Eric Borneman states in his recent book, "Its function [pulsing] was originally thought to be related to enhancing nutrient uptake, but later work seemed to target respiration and gas exchange."

 

I didn't mean to sound like this theory is proven. I was just correcting someone who stated the filter feeding theory as fact.

 

-Chris

Link to comment
Nishant3789

yea i knew that i was just makeing sure everyone else knew taht, lol sorry,

nishant

p.s- eric borneman is comin to our reefclub next month!!! too bad i never get to go to the meetings,

nishant

Link to comment

I have xenia growing like mad. Its a weed in my tank I give frags away. I have it growing on the glass its great cauze I can remove it with a razorblade and not hurt it cause the encrusting algae acts as a buffer zone between the glass and coral.

PS:      i mow the xenia occasionaly to make it spred faster. I only had some of it crash due to higher nitrates BUT they do need to have trace elements and DT's pytoplankton. Yes their heads are for resperation, and they will osmoticaly regulate food intake.

Link to comment

ok this is a little confusing going back and forth so i'll try to sum it up, tell me if ive missed something....

 

Xenia obtain energy from symbiotic xoozanthelly. It consumes nutrients strait out of the water and it consumes plankton. They use the pulsing effect to assist in water movement around the polyps for feeding and respiration.

Link to comment

Xenia obtain energy from zooxanthellae and from absorption of nutrients. Most recent study suggests that the pulsing is for gas exchange, and not food capture. If this is true, then they do not consume plankton. So feeding DT's or anything else specifically for these corals would be useless. That's not to say it wouldn't benefit other corals, though.

 

-Chris

Link to comment

but what i dont get about that is xenia are cnidarians, and have nematocyts. those nematocyts are there for a reason, if there never used, they would never have them. Every single other cnidarian consume plankton of some form, they wouldn't be any different.

Link to comment

Xenia do have nematocysts, but they are much weaker and fewer in number when compared to many other corals. So they can feed on plankton, but at a very reduced rate due to their ineffective nematocysts. Every coral has different dependencies on light, plankton, etc. Xenia just happens to be quite dependent on resources other than plankton capture.

 

I guess it is inaccurate to say that Xenia does not feed at all. It's just at a very reduced rate, so many people regard it as non-predatory.

 

-Chris

Link to comment
printerdown01

An easy nematocyst test is to press your finger up against the peice.... If when your rub your fingers together afterwards they feel very sticky you have something with a lot of nematocysts (also fun to do with anemones in tide pools)... Not a good idea with anything that packs a powerful sting (like carpets!)... Also xenia primarily feed off of light... Scientists suspect that they are also filter feeders due to their shape and behavior. However, they can find no evidence of this, and have no idea what they might be consuming in the water.... There is a lot of speculation, from zooplankton to trace elements.... But no results are conclusive yet, and they do just fine when nothing is added to the water...

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...